Wolverine 8mm & Super 8 Film Reel Converter Scanner - Frame by Frame to Digital 720P Videos

Much cheaper than having 8mm digitised professionally if you have more than half a dozen 50 ft reels. I had about 35 such reels, including 10 Super 8, which the machine can also digitise. It photographs each film frame individually, so it isn't fast, but speed is not important: reliability much more so. Some reviewers mentioned problems with an overheating drive band/belt. I never ran it for more than two hours at a time and had no problems at all with any overheating. I can't compare it to the results obtainable from a professional studio, but they were perfectly adequate for me: turning 50 year-old silent film into MP4 files which are perfectly viewable. I am very happy with this purchase as I could never have afforded to have it done professionally. I guess I will now try to sell the machine on E-BAY as one only needs it once unless you want to go into business yourself!

Arrived in 5 days and total cost was £250 after import tax (UK). This cine converter works with standard 8 and super 8 cine film (max 5'' spools) but does not transfer sound. Several options for capture are available in the step through menu, but I found the default settings to be very satisfactory. The transfer is to SD card in mp4 720p video format. Most editing software can resize, slowdown and stabilize the resulting video, so if you want to improve on the original it is possible. The unit can play back the saved files via composite TV out, so a computer is not necessary if you do not want to edit them after capture. The true value for money of the Wolverine will be evident if it lasts a few years, the build is a bit flimsy, but it is not for industrial use and should be handled with care, we are talking 'old cine film' here, so 'heavy-handed' people probably shouldn't be attempting this anyway!

Does what it says on the tin, from taking it out of the box to finishing my first 25 meter super 8mm was less than an hour, about 35 minutes to copy the film the rest formating the memory card and getting to grips with threading the film through the gate, Piece of cake.

An excellent machine does all it says on the box; I would pay a lot more for the machine; delivery was quick; at a very good price;the picture quality is as good as having them done professionly ;I love using my little Digitizer;I can not understand why there i s a lot of negative reviews on the web forums;It is not a commercial product to process thousands of films nonstop ;if treated with respect will give lots of film transfer service;I have just completed 22cans of film from 200ft to 400ft reels;the only down side is that it will only take 200ft reels but with some easy jig adaption you can over come the issue; or if you have a viewer and some spare reels you can cut and join with a tape splicer; I recommend this product

With my many reels of 8mm and super 8 film in the family since the fifties I worried that they would be lost or damaged. They are priceless records of our lives. Along came the Wolverine to rescue those memories. I have successfully started the transfers to DVD and the results are highly pleasing to all in the family. There is a learning curve to using the device. Importantly it pays to check any splices in the films and renew carefully any that need attention. All the standard 8 films will have one join at the centre. Super 8 if hasn't been edited will be fine. And following the guide booklet will make the whole process easy and the resulting transfers excellent. I have a lot of work ahead of me but the results I know will be very satisfying. All praise to the Wolverine!

Keep saying card error has never worked. Have tried 32GB Sandisk Ultra and Extreme Pro. Have tried different formatting nothing has worked.

I've done a few reels on my Wolverine now, but I was a bit disappointed in the results: I know the compression artifacts are bad, but it also seemed to be out of focus compared with viewing on an old hand-cranked Yashica fresnel viewer. Even with old, uncleaned film, there didn't seem to be any of the small dust specks or film scratches showing; they were simply blurred out of existence.. I got this second-hand off Ebay (they are not imported into the UK, and I bought this off an American who had brought it over) so with no warranty to lose, I thought I'd have a look under the hood. The main back comes off easily (though the screws are tight), but you need to get the grey plastic trim cover off the front to get access to the lens/camera. This is held on with a number of small screws on the reverse of the main steel mounting plate, BUT before it will come off you need to pop off the small touch-panel (with the on off button) on the front; this simply unclips (get your thumb nail under the front corner and gently prise up and along). Trust me, the main grey cover will not come off before you remove the control panel: I spent ages trying! Once removed, you have direct access to the camera lens, which has a screw adjustable lens. Sure enough, after a quick play around, it was clear that the lens could be focused much better than the factory set-up. Great, but I now need to re-scan a few hundred feet of film.. I am now scanning without the grey cover, so that I can keep a check on the focus. A few other findings: I had a troublesome Super8 reel which just wouldn't catch on the 'claw' to advance the film. On close inspection, the holes seemed to be set further inboard than other Super8 films that worked fine; just a fraction, but enough to cause a problem. I was envisioning how I was going to trim the edge of the entire reel to get it to work, but the answer was rather easier; by easing the 'standard 8- super8' setting switch slightly over towards standard setting, it moved the claw just enough to be able to scan the film fine. I have rigged up separate reel holders, like many users, to be able to scan larger reels, with a rubber drive belt onto a pulley directly onto the take-up spindle. This works fine; however, the inertia of a full 7", 400 foot supply reel can cause jarring as it pulls taught. Some users report this as causing juddering and mis-scanning. The trick is to get the film to curve up and down (which effectively acts like a spring, pretty much like at the take-up side where the film goes round a few pegs) before aligning to the scanning inlet. I do this very simply with a lint free soft cloth, which I wrap very loosely around the film as it comes off the supply reel, supported to guide the film in the correct orientation. I use 'Film Guard' cleaner/lubricant before hand on all of the reels, using my old Yashica viewer (which has a fast geared hand-wind) to quickly wizz through the film. I also use the Yashica to rewind all the films in general, as this will far extend the life of the machine, which, let's face it, is no heavyweight. On rewind mode, the poor old stepper motor is really going quite frantic! Not good. This could be a good bit of kit. Better access for basic adjustment, and more control over compression and image processing would make it so much better. How many are out there with poorly focused lenses from the factory?? But at the moment, there really isn't much else to compete with it at this price.

This thing has been clicking away since I got it. It is easy to use and it only needs minor baby sitting. I can now edit my films with my Ipad pro. The originals will never have to be played again. My only problem is I have about 10 - 7 inch reels. I will make an adapter with a crank to take the larger reels. I can break the reels into 2 - 5 inch and then with the adapter, rewind them back onto the 7 inch reel. For the 2 inch extra length, they could have made an adapter. Spending another $500.00 wasn't an option. Bob

Easy to use but does not handle early super 8 movie (mid 1970's) all that well. Had to use the "folded paper trick" from their website to get the film to track through the machine smoothly. Later super 8 from the 1980's tracked fine without the paper trick. Useful tip from either one of the posts here or their website, was to run old sproket damaged film through backwards. Then use a video editor to turn the film right way up, flip horizontal and reverse the play and all is well. That tip works a treat. Had to use that twice so far including on an obviously well watched wedding taken on standard 8 in the 70's. Sproket holes were so bad it would not track at all in many places, but of couirse the back side of the sproket holes were perfect. There were no issues with any standard 8 movies, except for worn sproket holes as mentioned above. In terms of use, you do have to baby sit the process, not because of any inherent machine issue but because you get problems with old film, like breaking and sometimes jamming over poor splices. So, you do need to have a film splicer and either film cement or splicing tape handy for running repairs. Also. if you have your film on 400 ft reels you will need to split the film in two as this model Wolverine only tales 200 ft reels. Fortunately my film and splicing gear, including cement, were all stored in an airtight metal box for 30 odd years and so there was minimal deterioration and even half a bottle of film cement for splicing. Overall, a worthwhile purchase. UPDATE September 7th 2018 Was a bit concerned about how it would handle sound striped film. Have 3,000 feet of Super 8 film with sound added on after the processing via a sound stripe. Have processed 1,000 feet of it so far with no issues at all. All of the film is 35 to 45 years old with some of the sound striping being added in 1976.. Adding a sound track via the movie projector, after you have added the sound stipe using a striping machine, is not a process you forget easily. That is how I remeber when it was done so clearly. In any case point is, the Wolverine handled the striped film with no issues except over the taped joins which were used (because of the sound stripe) instead of the usual cement joins. So, a bit of addirional baby sitting needed to watch for the joins.

This worked as expected and copied many hours of 40 year old 8mm film, the quality was great, if you have spliced film you have to watch the copy process as it tends to jam on the splice but no drama just re-adjust the film and off it goes, it did not jam on every splice. Very happy with this purchase, highly recommended to digitize old film.

Con este dispositivo volví a disfrutar mis recuerdos guardados en películas 8 y super8, que creí no volver a ver por tener mis proyectores con problemas. Y mejor aún digitalizadas y compartidas ahora en YouTube a familiares y amigos

Item arrived on due date, as stated it is slow but picture quality is good.